Don't toss that first manuscript

Don’t throw away your first novel. Perhaps, what got you into writing was passion. You could do that. You have a great idea. Your heart and your words were in sync. You could write a story like hers, but only better. In later books, perhaps, you are forced for commercialism to follow the formulaic path. Nothing wrong with that. Certainly, if Aristotle were alive today, he’d be the first to tell you so.

Yet there is something so special about a first novel. You may have broken the rules. You may have told a story that needed to be told. Get an editor who will keep your voice and publish that puppy. I’ve read many first novels, and enjoyed them all very much.

I’ll offer two examples:

Linda Thomas-Sundstrom’s Café Heaven. This is definitely a piece of her heart and being different you can expect to be delighted.

My first, Neanderthals and the Garden of Eden was a story that had to be told. As a former scientist, I was appalled by the bad science out there in our fiction regarding our pre-history. I said, I can do that, I can tell a story true to the facts. It has done moderately well (approx. 5000 copies), but to me the satisfaction this one story keeps giving me cannot be measured.

Sometimes, your first song is the same way and sometimes it is so good, so different, it becomes a huge hit. Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass was a number one hit for many weeks. She follows with a catchy tune, similar, Lips are Movin, in that it captures her happy perky personality. So far it has climbed to number 4 on the charts. Will she ever recapture that number one spot. I hope so. Probably, but for me her first song will be fondly remembered as special. Go back to your favorite artists (or writers) and recall their first. The first time you heard their sweet sound or read their beautiful story.

The Four Seasons: Sherry

Carly Rae Jepsen’s first single: Call Me Maybe

Sonny and Cher: I Got You Babe

Hold that first novel close to your heart, because you got it and it got you, babe.